The National Green Tribunal today directed the inspection of a land in a Najafgarh village here, which has been identified as a site for setting up of a sewage treatment plant (STP) to clean waste water flowing into the Yamuna.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar constituted a team of officers from Delhi Jal Board (DJB) and the city government who will jointly conduct inspection of the site at Dichaon Kalan village and submit a status report.

"We direct joint inspection team consisting of senior officer of DJB, Land and Building and Land Revenue Department of Delhi government and representative of Valmiki Society accompany by chief engineer of DJB shall visit the site and report to the tribunal... They shall provide written status report duly signed by all the departments," the bench said.

The order came after the representatives of the Valmiki community from the Dichaon Kalan village told the bench that the land on which the DJB was planning to set up sewage treatment plant was a cremation ground.

The AAP government had told the tribunal that the Valmiki community in the village were opposing the land acquisition process as the plot was being used as a site for cremation.

The matter was listed for further hearing on December 5.

The NGT had on October 23 rapped the AAP government and the DJB for not filing their replies to the show cause notices on why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them for delaying compliance of orders on the Yamuna cleaning project.

DJB CEO had then told the NGT that out of the total fund of Rs 1,755 crore allocated to the Board, Rs 939 crore was for water and Rs 816 crore for sewage. Of this, Rs 351 crore had been spent on the sewage head on maintenance and the projects allowed by the committee constituted by the tribunal.

The tribunal was informed that a total of 14 STP projects are to be constructed to clean wastewater. Of these, seven are to be built by the DJB with its own funds.

The green panel had said that pollution in the Yamuna was of serious concern as it was highly contaminated by industrial effluents and sewage.

It had noted that almost 67 per cent of the pollutants reaching Yamuna would be treated by the two sewage treatment plants at Delhi Gate and Najafgarh under the first phase of the 'Maili se Nirmal Yamuna Revitalisation Project'.

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